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American Vae Journal 



watch would have to be kept ou the 

 bees, unless abundant stores were 

 left in the hives at the close of the 

 harvest. There are a few colonies of 

 bees scattered through this section. 

 I examined them and found them 

 "with the goods on them." Bee- 

 keeping would be profitable there and 

 the opportunities are so bright that I 

 made arrangements to start up bee- 

 keeping in one section where I could 

 secure the services of a man who had 

 experience with a few colonies and 

 was enthusiastic over bee-culture. He 

 at once subscribed for two bee-papers 

 and purchased some bee-books, and is 

 burning the "midnight oil" studying 

 bee-culture and obtaining all the 

 practical knowledge he can from his 

 four or five colonies. He writes me 

 that he doesn't know how he can wait 

 until next year to enter bee-keeping 

 as a vocation. He wilt have several 

 hundred colonies in a number of 

 apiaries and a good helper until he 

 can take full charge. 



on another stand, the queen with 

 about two frames of brood. In nine 

 days these queenless colonies will 

 have a number of ripe queen cells, 

 which can be removed and placed in 

 cell protectors. The undesirable 

 queens may then be found and killed 

 and a cell given each colony. As soon 



as all cells are removed from the colo- 

 nies that built them, place a sheet of 

 newspaper over the brood chamber 

 and set the hive bodies containing the 

 two combs and old queen on top of 

 this. They will soon gnaw through 

 this sheet of paper and peaceably 

 unite. 



Apiary Work 



In most sections in Dixie the main 

 summer honey flow is over. In a 

 few sections there will yet be a flow 

 in the fall, while in many others the 

 flow will be light and lingering so 

 that brood rearing will be kept at a 

 high pitch. Each individual bee- 

 keeper knows something of these con- 

 ditions, as they exist in his neighbor- 

 hood. He should know whether he 

 wishes to requeen or make some good 

 increase. 



If a surplus honey flow is expected, 

 the necessary supers should be pre- 

 pared and given to the bees wlien the 

 honey plants begin blooming. If there 

 is no more surplus honey expected, all 

 supers and surplus honey should be re- 

 moved and comb-honey supers left 

 off for the winter. Extracting supers 

 should be placed back on the hives 

 so the bees can care for the combs 

 until the next season. In removing 

 honey, always inspect the brood-cham- 

 ber or bottom-story and make sure 

 that the bees' have sufficient stores. 

 Many times bees store nearly all their 

 honey in the supers and are short 

 in the brood-chamber. Such a short- 

 age can be overcome by supplying 

 honey either from other one-storj^ 

 hives or from full-depth supers. If 

 increase is desired, it can best be 

 made from the strongest colonies by 

 dividing them into two equal parts. 

 The queenless halves should be left 

 on the old stand and the others con- 

 taining queens put on new stands. 

 Otherwise most of the bees would re- 

 turn to the old stand. The queen- 

 less part on the old stand will raise 

 a nice young queen or you can buy 

 queens and introduce them. Ripe 

 queen-cells may be given from some 

 of the best colonies made queenless 

 nine days before for this purpose. If 

 you desire to requeen all or a part 

 of your colonies, make a few of your 

 very best colonies queenless by re- 

 moving and placing in an empty hive 



The Foul Brood Situation 



Some time since Mr. E. D. Town- 

 send made the statement that if once 

 you had foul brood you would always 

 have it. I consider the statement very 

 unfortunate, and if he had ever had 

 any experience with brood diseases, I 

 a m sure he would never have made it. 

 I know it is not true of American foul 

 brood, as I have had it among my 

 bees several times, and found I could, 

 with care, rid myself of it. I once 

 went 25 years without seeing any signs 

 of its re-appearance. I have had no 

 experience with European foul brood 

 among my own bees, but from my ex- 

 perience as an inspector, I lind it 

 yields to treatment quite as readily as 

 American. I think more so. But in 

 the hands of shiftless bee-keepers it is 

 likely to remain. 



How can we get rid of it ? 1 have 

 heard a number of lectures on this 

 subject. While great importance is 

 laid on disinfecting the hives tliat have 

 housed a diseased colony by burning 

 them out with a torch ; a strong solu- 

 tion of carbolic acid or boiling water 

 not being sufficient, it is claimed, to 

 kill the germs that cause the disease. 

 I have heard very little of the impor- 

 tance of getting rid of Pat O'Flattery's 

 h colonies, foul with disease, which he 

 has very conveniently forgotten to list 

 with his taxable property. He lives 

 over the hill in the edge of the woods 

 on a road rarely traveled. 



And then there is the " Widder 

 Brown," who lives on the back road, 

 and has 2 colonies that " sc/ out back 

 of the barn by the hog pasture, so they 

 -Lvon'i stingy nobody." The swarms, 

 when she has any, goto the woods and 

 she gets little honey. Her hives are of 

 little use except as a nursery for dis- 

 ease to torment her more enterprising 

 neighbors. 



Now I am not denying that bacteria 

 larvae, or bacteria pluton,will notthrive 

 on a strong solution of carbolic acid 

 or an occasional bath of boiling water. 

 VVhat I do affirm is that the danger of 

 not getting rid of these diseases by 

 any intelligent, enterprising bee-keeper 

 comes more largely from the inspector 

 overlooking these small yards in out-of- 

 the-way places, or the shiftless treat- 

 ment of those he does find. 



An inspector gets word from a town 

 30 miles away that there is undoubtedly 

 foul brood in a certain yard. He takes 

 the first train, reaches the place and 

 "inspects." "Yes, sir, it is a bad case 



of foul brood." He gives rections 

 how to treat it; goes to the hotel, gets 

 a good dinner, after which he sits on 

 the veranda, smokes a fragrant cigar, 

 and takes the next train home, looking 

 every inch "an official." Such "offi- 

 cials " are not worth their weight in 

 salt. 



It is quite as important that an in- 

 spector should look for more diseases 

 if he finds one yard infected, as to look 

 after that one. If he visits all the yards 

 in the vicinity he will find how much 

 territory the disease covers, whether 

 one township or a part of several, or a 

 whole county. When he knows how 

 far it extends he can go to work sys- 

 tematically and crush it out. 



But it is not an easy task for an in- 

 spector to find every bee-keeper in a 

 given area. I remember in working in 

 one town I thought I had every bee- 

 keeper on my list, when by accident I 

 stumbled across one of the largest bee- 

 keepers in the town whom no one had 

 told me of. Only the other day I was 

 talking with a man sitting beside me 

 on the train, and he told me of an api- 

 ary of which I had never heard in a 

 town which I thought I had covered 

 very thoroughly. 



Stamping out disease here and there 

 while it remains all about you is not of 

 much use. "But how about the bee- 

 trees ? Are you going to look them 

 all up ?" No, it is not necessary. If 

 we take care of the colonies in the va- 

 rious yards about town the " bee^rees" 

 will not bother us long, for these bees 

 will soon die and the moth worms will 

 finish the job. 



So I say, cheer up my friends, I do 

 not believe it is necessary that we 

 should always have foul brood with us; 

 although if we have shiftless neighbors 

 we may occasionally " have a touch of 

 it." Stamping out the disease here 

 and there while it abounds on every 

 side, is a good deal like putting down 

 a Mexican revolution. It doesn't stay 

 down. 



Speaking of the use of a torch to 

 burn out brood-chambers to disinfect 

 them, is no doubt effectual, but in prac- 

 tical work I have found it hardly nec- 

 essary. I visited a yard of 100 colonies 

 two years ago, and almost every one 

 was diseased. As the owner was a hard 

 working farmer and a very good bee- 

 keeper, I did not want to make him 

 any unnecessary trouble. I told him I 

 did not think it necessary to burn out 

 everything. The worst colony I found 

 I told him to just shake out in the 

 brood-chamber, and in four days shake 

 again without any ckaning. He did 



